Calafiori to play an important role for Arteta”, Possible Arsenal XI to face Lyon tomorrow – As Arteta plans to test some players in some key position

Arsenal plays their final preseason game against Lyon at their North London headquarters on Sunday afternoon, hoping to defend their Emirates Cup championship.

The Gunners won the exhibition title in 2023, but its guests are the last foreign team to do so. Coincidentally, they defeated French opponents in Monaco.

Mikel Arteta’s relentless charges at the Emirates on Wednesday night delivered Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen a very tough reality check, even though they emulated Arsenal’s Invincibles heroics 20 years after the Arsene Wenger crop of 2003–04.

The goals were shared in front of 50,000 spectators, as has been customary under the Spaniard’s leadership. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Jesus made sure that an Adam Hlozek score would amount to little more than bittersweet relief.

Even after humiliating a team that dropped just 12 league points in 2023–24, Arteta, the former Everton midfielder who reconnected with good friend and former Merseyside derby rival Alonso in midweek, argued that the Gunners still have a lot of space for growth.

Remarkably, Arsenal is the most successful team in Emirates Cup history, having raised the cup seven times. They will make a quick return to Emirates soil before their Premier League opener against Wolverhampton Wanderers on August 17.

Although the hosts now face the technically most successful foreign team since the competition’s inception in 2007, Monaco was the most recent victims of Arteta’s team in the friendly game, losing on penalties last year following the Gunners’ 6-0 demolition of Sevilla in 2022.

Lyon, in fact, is just one of five non-English teams to deprive Arsenal of their traditional preseason title. In 2019, Lyon triumphed over a team coached by Unai Emery, following in the footsteps of New York Red Bulls, Hamburger SV, Galatasaray, and Valencia in previous competitions.

Les Gones have seen both great heights and terrible lows since their previous appearance in the exhibition match. Last summer, they came dangerously close to being demoted from Ligue 1, but an unknown figure in Pierre Sage helped navigate the ship into more stable waters.

Lyon has a preseason record book that includes a thrashing of a German team in addition to rising from the lower tiers of the table to the most unlikely of Europa League qualifying, all owing in large part to the goal-scoring prowess of former Arsenal captain Alexandre Lacazette.

Les Gones travel to North London fresh off a 4-0 thumping of Union Berlin on 3 August, in which Ainsley Maitland-Niles, a former Gunner, scored twice, Gift Orban notched a brace and former West Ham United player Said Benrahma also scored.

The match on Sunday is also Lyon’s last preparation game before their interesting Ligue 1 debut on August 18 away at Rennes. Les Gones have only faced Arsenal in two competitive matches in their history, losing 2-1 over two games in the 2000–01 Champions League second group stage.

Other full-backs Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber were not involved in the crushing of Leverkusen; the latter is recovering from a minor foot ailment and should not be risked today, along with the injured Kieran Tierney (hamstring) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee).

As Calafiori gradually gets used to life in England, Arteta did not think about having him make his debut. The Gunners manager is optimistic that the Italian can play in a non-competitive match on Sunday, but it is quite doubtful that he would do so right away.

Nevertheless, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka played the whole 45 minutes of the midweek victory and might make a comeback to their proper positions in the starting lineup, which would be unfortunate for Jorginho and Fabio Vieira should Arteta continue to play Havertz in a deeper spot.

The Lyon captain, along with Rayan Cherki and Johann Lepenant, is recuperating from a heartbreaking silver medal at the Olympics after a 5-3 loss to Spain in the gold medal match, so the North London giants won’t be reunited with the former skipper Lacazette.

Although Mali’s young custodian Lassine Diarra played in the competition and will have more time to recover, Maitland-Niles, an Arsenal academy graduate, should start against his old team.

Georges Mikautadze, who scored three goals and earned one-sixth of the Euro 2024 Golden Boot, starts up top in Lacazette’s place, while 36-year-old Nemanja Matic continues to be a force in midfield.

Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Jesus, Martinelli might be Arsenal’s starting lineup.

Possible starting lineup for Lyon: Maitland-Niles, Mikautadze, Benrahma; Lopes; Mata, Caleta-Car, Niakhate, Abner; Mangala, Matic, Caqueret